Taking It On

Mom of 4, stepmom to 6 and former elite rower pushing 50, returning to running hoping to regain some sanity. Exploring the trials and tribulations of parenting and running while attempting to find some kind of balance in and humor in the mess!

How do you balance your daily routine with kids and exercise?

What's the best playground in San Francisco or the Bay Area?

There are so many! How do you pick the best? For me, it has to do with where all 4 of my kids will have fun. They don't need fancy. The Wild West Playground in Montclair (East Bay/Oakland) is one of their favorites. Everyone from the 2 year old up to the 12-year old enjoys it! And it was one of my favorites as a child, too...40 years ago! While the only part pictured in my post is the Wild West part, there are also standard (yet rather elaborate) climbing structures, slides, swings as well as an enclosed toddler area.

Share your fertility tips for moms wanting another pregnancy

I was told by my fertility-specialist OB that, based on their standard hormone-level testings, it was "highly, highly unlikely...we aren't allowed to say 'impossible'" that I would be able to get pregnant when I was 41 and wanting a third child. I took the test results to a highly-recommended acupuncturist who specializes in women's health issues and asked her opinion. She said she could "definitely work with those numbers." Six months later I was pregnant with my now-6-year old son. Three years later, at the age of 44, I sought her help again. I'd just had a surprise pregnancy that was ectopic. I was perimenopausal and sad. Our dietary, exercise and lifestyle changes were designed to balance my hormones so I would feel better. And I happily wound up pregnant with my 4th child.
My top tips are to eat 'clean,' get regular exercise, get good sleep, relax, be open to options that might perhaps be outside your normal range of thinking. And patience. And I am a huge advocate of Chinese medicine :)

Best tips for nursing one baby while pregnant with another?

Stay very well-hydrated! Be sure your nutrition is about as sound as you can stand it given whatever food-aversions you have. Take your prenatals! Use the nursing time as a rest or relaxation time, if at all possible...sometimes it's not :P Know that your nipples will probably be very sensitive, and the whole process may feel super annoying at times. But if you choose to go forth, patience and calm are key :)

What is your favorite healthy, snack for you and your kids?

How Do You Make Time For Exercise?

I work it in whenever I can. Often this means I don't start until after all the kids are in bed. I wish mornings were more workable, but with 4 kids running around, weekday mornings are often too hectic!

What is the best way to keep child noise from bothering neighbors?

The only real things I worry about with regard to noise and my kids and the neighbors are: 1) noise super early in the morning or super late at night and 2)screeching while playing or fighting with other kids/siblings. The regular course of living noises that come with kids are what they are. If the neighbors complain about kids just being kids, I'd buy them some earplugs.

When your child has a friend who is a bad influence, what can you do?

When this happens, I do nothing to encourage the friendship. I set up no playdates with the kid. We're always busy when the kid invites mine to playdates. Because I have 4 children, people usually don't think twice about us declining invitations...they chalk it up to us being truly busy. I talk with my child about choices and acceptable and appropriate behaviors...and about the consequences when choices made are not good ones and when behaviors are out of bounds.

How do you know you are ready for more children?

How can you ever KNOW you are ready for more? Especially since you have no idea what the next child will be like, how the older one(s) will react, what life will be like at the time the child arrives independent of his/her arrival... there are so many variables. You can FEEL in your heart or in your mind that you are ready or that you WANT... but do you ever really KNOW? The truth is you really don't know what you can handle, how you will feel, what you can 'afford'... When you are ready to face ANYthing...illness, a suddenly bad economy, death, the imaginable and the unimaginable...then you are ready to have more children. Life is all a crapshoot. If you aren't ready to work to cope with whatever comes you're way, then you aren't really ready.

What are your tips for throwing a party that both adults and kids will enjoy?

The simplest tip I can give for having a party in which adults and kids all feel like they're having fun is to spend a little extra and hire a couple of trusted babysitters. This really helps the parents relax and enjoy the party instead of feeling like they have to constantly be 'on'.